Reflective Practice for Practitioners
SHEP’s work in facilitating Reflective Practice is part of our broader intention to support practitioners and the systems they work in. It is a Continuing Personal and Professional Development. Three courses are being organised currently to commence in September 2024 and will continue to March/April 2025.
- Waterford City
- Cork City
- One course Zoom Online (Kerry based facilitators)
DOWNLOAD Application Form SHEP Reflective Practice for Practitioners 2024-2025
Applications are still being taken.
Course Brochure
DOWNLOAD Brochure SHEP Reflective Practice for Practitioners 2024-2025
The courses are highly subsidised. There is no course fee for the Tuesday Waterford course, it being organised as a partnership between Waterford Healthy Ireland, Waterford Sacred Heart FRC and SHEP. For the Wednesday and Thursday courses, the fee is mostly subsidised through the support from SHEP and the HSE. There is a small €45 fee from participants to cover the cost of the course book and materials.
Applications can be made to info@socialandhealth.com or inquiries to liam.mccarthy@socialandhealth.com or jess.bowen@socialandhealth.com or enquire to 021 4666180/Jess Bowen (089 6100906)
Extended Application closing date is Friday 30th August 2024
SHEP Reflective Practice Courses
SHEP Reflective Practice courses are open-access and stand-alone courses. They are designed to create a place to reflect on practice for people active in their communities who have a commitment to enabling social change and working towards a socially just and inclusive world. Participants share in the creation of a space that facilitates an exploration of the assumptions, values, beliefs and feelings that underpin participants ways of being active in their respective settings. This course entails 30 contact hours through group time – approximately 10 or 12 sessions (approximately fortnightly or monthly) over a number of months, tailored as appropriate.
These Reflective Practice Groups will be of interest to a wide range of practitioners, (volunteers or paid) involved in various roles in communities, community and voluntary sector organisations and groups, service organisations or social service agencies (e.g. education, youth and community work, social work, childcare, health-care etc).
Philosophy
This SHEP CPD programme is underpinned by SHEP’s philosophy that self-awareness and self-knowledge, when combined with a commitment to community action, is the basis for personal and social transformation. The programme reflects SHEP’s philosophy that adults continue to learn throughout their life and that life and practice experience is an invaluable source for that learning. It is inspired by SHEP’s commitment to equality, social justice, social transformation and the contribution that group spaces can create for learning.
Learning Outcomes
Participants who complete any course on this programme will be able to:
- Better reflect on their practice at work.
- Participate in the co-creation of a group reflective practice space.
- Adopt a facilitative stance that enables groups to co-create the conditions for an effective reflective practice space.
- Write reflectively about their practice and their reflective learning processes.
- Draw up a personal plan as to how they will support themselves in their practice.
Approaches
This programme is primarily experiential. There will be limited formal teaching and a small amount of guided reading. The majority of the reflective practice groups are run using the Critical Reflection Model (Fook & Gardner, 2007). Some are run drawing on Theory U .
Entry requirements
Candidates must:
- Demonstrate an interest in learning about and practising reflective processes.
- Have a willingness to be open in a group setting, sufficient for a process of reflection on the assumptions, values and feelings underpinning their activity, and
- Have a strong commitment to promoting social change, equality and justice.
Certification
A SHEP Certificate in Reflective Practice for Practitioners will be awarded where an 80% attendance record is achieved. There will be no formal assessment in the programme. Participants will be required to complete and submit a short written reflective journal of their key learning at the end of the programme.
What some past participants have said:
˜It was wonderful to engage with fellow professionals and participate in their struggles alongside my own. This was positive and life affirming as well as contributing greatly to the learning of how to be reflective in my practice.
˜This course provided me with the space to take time out from the day-to-day craziness of work to genuinely reflect and think about what is important. Really enjoyed it and benefited from it personally and professionally.
˜This course allowed me to go into a heart space which is often neglected and ignored in the heady obligations of my working life.
